Honouring Team Canada 2020 World Junior Gold!
The Ward 2 2019 Year in Review
My first year as your city councillor has flown by, but it has been a very exciting and productive first year.
In 2019 engaging the residents of Ward 2 has meant:
- Hosting 3 public townhall meetings
- Responding to over 2000 of your emails
- An average of 4000 social media engagements a month
I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to share your thoughts, ideas, questions and concerns. It is important for me to hear from you in order to bring our neighbourhood’s voice to London City Hall effectively.
Of course, it is also about doing the work at City Hall as well and in my first year I’ve served on Council’s Civic Works and Community and Protective Services Committee, as well as Council’s representative on the Argyle BIA, Library, and Tourism London boards.
I’m looking forward to continuing that work this year and am honoured to have the confidence of my fellow council members in taking on the additional role of Chairperson for the Community and Protective Services Committee for 2020.
There are many Ward level needs and wants to work on as well. We have streets without any sidewalks, while other streets are badly in need of paving repairs. We have parks that need equipment repairs and other locations that need and are waiting for pedestrian crosswalks too. Of course there is also the need to keep working on affordable housing, better snow plowing, public wifi access at city facilities, and getting the green bin program started to name a few of the city wide initiatives I’m working on.
And although I’m frustrated about the delays, I continue to work with our project team at the city to “get it done!” so that 2020 will finally see the opening of our new East Lion’s Community Centre.
It will also be a challenging year as we work on the 2020-2023 Multi-year budget and work to deliver good services while keeping tax increases as reasonable as possible.
I look forward to continuing to work with you, and for you, to make our community an even better place to live, work, and play than it already is.
Wishing you a happy and prosperous New Year!
2019 INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS!
- 2 new pedestrian crosswalks installed on Trafalgar at Thorne & Condor
- 3 new advanced green turn signals approved and installed at Trafalgar & Clarke (west bound turning south) and Veterans Memorial Parkway at Gore & Trafalgar for north bound traffic turning west
- School zone speed bumps installed at Bonaventure Public School
- First phase of Dundas St. renewal completed from Highbury to First St.
- Marconi repaved from Trafalgar to Noel
- Edgeworth and Avalon streets; new sewers, watermains, and road repaved
- New accessible pedestrian ramps on neighbourhood walkway Merlin to Dawn Dr.
- Frobisher & Champlain, new watermains, sewer, road repave and new sidewalk.
ENHANCING ARGYLE IN 2019
- Hosted a free Family Day Skate at Argyle Arena for residents,
- In a unanimous vote, had City Council officially designated Vimy Ridge Park at the southeast corner of the Hale & Trafalgar roundabout,
- Helped Lord Nelson School secure funding for a new playground,
- Welcomed new businesses; Osmow’s, Chuck’s Roadhouse, United Kutz, and Madison’s Boutique to the Argyle area, as well as the new London Intercommunity Health Centre,
- Worked with Drewlo Holdings to have their property on Dundas cleaned-up.
Building the Community Together
3 School Board Trustees,
4 local Members of Parliament,
The Argyle Community Association,
The Argyle Basic Needs Coalition,
The Royal Canadian Legion,
Zerrin, York, and Auburn Developments,
General Dynamics, Zubicks, Purifics, Lynn’s Bakery, Diamond Aircraft, Sutherland’s Furniture, McDonalds, Coulter’s Pharmacy, and Player’s Sports Bar & Grill among others.
And doing ride along shifts with the London Police and London Firefighters,
A Year 1 Council Update, with Councillor Morgan
Naming the EAST LIONS COMMUNITY CENTRE!
In 1951 the newly chartered East London Lions Club purchased a block of land which they cleared for a baseball diamond and park. Continue Reading
Ward 2 Townhall Meeting
Wednesday October 2nd
6:30-8:30pm at the East London Library
Join me and City Staff from the Budget team to discuss the upcoming multiyear budget, get an update on the community centre construction, and discuss the issues important to you.
Bringing Affordable & Public Housing Under Direct City Leadership
Councillor Shawn Lewis speaking about the challenges facing social and affordable housing in London, and the need to bring the direction of London Middlesex Community Housing and the Housing Development Corporation under a single leader accountable to city council.
Ward 2’s Vimy Ridge Park Becomes Official
More than two years after it was opposed by the former Ward 2 Councillor and referred back to city staff to review other options, the Community and Protective Services Committee of London City Council unanimously endorses the motion by new Ward 2 Councillor Shawn Lewis to officially designate Vimy Ridge Park. Continue Reading
UPDATE ON EAST LONDON COMMUNITY CENTRE CONSTRUCTION
Dear Argyle Residents,
I know we’ve all been waiting a long time for the Argyle neighbourhood to get a proper community centre, over 19 years in fact.
It was a privilege to stand with (then) Mayor Brown in the fall of 2017 and officially break ground on the construction site.
And, it has been a disappointment to have the opening repeatedly pushed back from fall of 2018 to spring of 2019, to fall of 2019.
Since being elected I’ve stopped by the work site and connected with the management team on a regular basis. I know they’ve been doing what they can.
Unfortunately, it falls to me to share the bad news that we are still behind schedule.
Multi-year Budgets and Provincial Uncertainty
I recently had the opportunity to speak with London Free Press columnist Chip Martin about the city’s next multi-year budget cycle.
Already the Ford Government in Ontario has downloaded or cut services that will add at least $4 million to the city’s budget costs. Staff have already told council just to stay on track next year we need to raise property taxes another 2.7%. And of course we have a federal election looming this year that could result in more changes to affordability for Londoners. That concerns me a great deal. Seniors on CPP and OAS benefits aren’t able to keep pace with those kind of increases and stay in their homes. The rising costs of groceries, hydro bills, and everything else is making it harder and harder for people to make ends meet, and property taxes are the LEAST FAIR form of taxes possible.
People should make no mistake, decisions of senior levels of government have profound financial impacts on municipal governance. Continue Reading
Time to Say No to a Bridge to Nowhere
The 2014-2018 Council (including the former Ward 2 Councillor), set aside $5 million to potentially fund the “Ribbon of the Thames” portion of the “Back to the River” project.
What has become known as the “bridge to nowhere”, a suspended lookout bridge and river facing amphitheater space, has already ballooned in cost from $2 million to $7 million, with additional costs for shoreline work, excavation, and flood mitigation measures coming in at another $3-4 million.
Staff pegs the cost of the “Ribbon of the Thames” at a minimum of $12.8 million dollars, with only $2 million in private donations from the London Community Foundation, leaving the project with at least a $5 million funding gap even if we spend all $5 million of the public dollars set aside.
And that’s without spending a penny on the removal of the decommissioned Springbank Bank that has gates and hydraulic systems currently sitting at the bottom of the river. Continue Reading